Cholera spreading in Somalia, 50,000 cases foreseen: WHO

More than 25,000 people in Somalia have been struck by cholera or acute watery diarrhoea, and the epidemic is expected to double in coming months ‘by summer’, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.

The case fatality rate for the disease, spread by contaminated food or water, is already 2.1 per cent in Somalia, twice the emergency threshold, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Reuters.

Death rates among Somalis infected with cholera now reach 14.1 per cent in Middle Juba and 5.1 per cent in Bakool, UN spokesman Jens Laerke told a news briefing.

Some 533 deaths linked to the outbreak have been reported in Somalia so far this year, he said.